Hike to honor memory of Acton-Boxborough High School alum

As family and friends tell it, Jennifer “Jenna” Sloan Agule believed she could move mountains.

Margaret Smith/msmith@wickedlocal.com

As family and friends tell it, Jennifer “Jenna” Sloan Agule believed she could move mountains.

Agule, 22, a 2006 graduate of Acton-Boxborough Regional High School and 2010 graduate of St. Michael’s College in Vermont, loved hiking, the outdoors, traveling the world and lending a hand to many causes, including children in need.

In her memory, her family has established the nonprofit One Angel Foundation, and will host the first annual worldwide “Hike A Mountain Day” Saturday, Oct. 15, to raise money in honor of Agule, who died Jan. 26 in a skiing accident in Colorado.

Participants in the event will raise donations through pledges to sponsor hikes anywhere and everywhere, including Wachusett Mountain in Princeton, where the Agule family will host the event in conjunction with the resort’s Applefest.

Participation at Wachusett Mountain includes free access to Applefest and a food voucher, said her father, Charles “Chip” Agule.

“We wanted to come up with an idea, something that friends and family, no matter where they were in the world, could participate in,” Agule said. “The hikes could be five feet, or 5,000 feet.”

He said, “Jenna was interested in helping some of the communities in South America where she worked, as well as organizations in South Africa. People had ideas for fundraisers, the normal stuff – an event at a restaurant, a road race, something like that. But it would not incorporate all the people she touched from around the world.”

Agule said the inspiration for Hike A Mountain Day came after loved ones pored over photos of Agule’s travels. “Looking at all the pictures, where she loved the outdoors – skiing, hiking and biking. She spent four years in Burlington [at St. Michael’s College in Vermont.] Then she was out in Breckenridge, Colo.”

The goal is to raise about $25,000.

Funds raised through Hike A Mountain will benefit Cotlands, an AIDS orphanage in Capetown, South Africa, where she spent some time helping out during the summer of her junior year in college, as well as communities such as Julticalpa, Honduras, where she spent two summers working to stabilize their housing needs and bring safe drinking water, as well as supporting the community’s schools.

So far, several friends and family members in various locations have already agreed to participate, said Agule, in locations such as Vermont, Colorado, Japan, Colombia and Italy.

The Agules encourage those who participate to share photos and videos of their hikes that can be posted on the foundation’s website.

“We have all gone through the different levels of the grieving process, and we wanted to do something to honor her memory, and so some of the things she wanted to see done,” Agule said. “People can hike on flat ground, if that’s what they want to do.”

He added, “She was an avid outdoorsman in hiking, biking, running and skiing. She truly loved being one with nature. We believe that by combining something that she loved to do with a fundraiser to help those who she cared about is a true testament to her spirit and life.

She was very into social justice for people, being taken care of when needed, if we can continue some of those efforts, then we feel a little bit closer, and the event is a fun thing that she loved to do, and her friends liked to do, so hopefully we have a second hike.”